


want you more than anybody else

by kotoumii



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Misunderstandings, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, attempts at humor but i make no promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24278641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotoumii/pseuds/kotoumii
Summary: Atsumu doesn’t know what to do. He knows that it’s possible for someone to have an unrequited soulmate - there’s a shelf at the local library filled with self help books and autobiographies with titles like “So You Aren’t Your Soulmate’s Soulmate: What Next?” and “Colorless: How My Experience With an Unrequited Soulmate Helped Me Build a Business Empire”. He had just never considered the fact that it could happen to him.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Comments: 37
Kudos: 879
Collections: Haikyuu





	want you more than anybody else

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't published a single fic in like four years but then these two happened and I needed to write for them. title is from the song [buttons by meija](https://open.spotify.com/track/1pZ9xYDzyq9KHTVrqBUEsn?si=dK_VFYRlRiWCEbBrX7L1sg) which is a sakuatsu song if I've ever heard one.

When Miya Atsumu is four years old he hears the word soulmate for the first time. He’s sitting on the couch watching something about monsters that Osamu put on while his mother whispers excitedly on the phone. He doesn’t hear much of the conversation, but there’s a word he hasn’t heard before - soulmate.

He asks her what it means after she hangs up the phone, and even years later he remembers her response like it was yesterday. 

“Well, everyone has someone in the world who they’re meant to love. And when you meet them, it’s so special that your whole life changes.”

-

When Atsumu is ten years old a new student joins his class. She walks through the door, introduces herself to the class, and walks halfway through a row of desks before sharing a glance with another student that stops her in her tracks. Atsumu is confused, at first, but when the other girl stands up and throws herself into the new student’s arms, he realizes - they’re soulmates.

Finding your soulmate is as overwhelming emotionally as it is physically, a fact which Atsumu knows not from experience but from the children's books and television shows dedicated to the subject which he grew up with, and the soulmate unit of every science class he’s ever taken. 

Atsumu, like all children his age, is able to recite countless facts on the topic of soulmates, none of which have ever made the concept any more real to him. Soulmates are fated to be together, connected by some force which countless scientific studies have been unable to find or understand. Locking eyes with your soulmate stimulates a set of nerves which activates a set of otherwise inactive photoreceptors - in other words, until you meet your soulmate, you can only see the world in shades of gray. Approximately 75% of people meet their soulmate at some point in their lifetime. Being in a successful relationship with your soulmate, whether romantic or platonic, has numerous benefits - lower rates of depression, higher job performance, longer life expectancy. It is possible to live a full and rewarding life without ever meeting your soulmate. 

The day you find your soulmate is the best day of your life. This last fact is not from any scientific study, but it’s an accepted truth all the same, which is why the two girls who have just met are given permission to leave school for the day and get to know each other while the rest of the class forgoes science and literature to gush over how _excited_ they are for the new couple and speculate on when they’ll have their own first meetings with their soulmates.

That night at dinner when his parents ask him and Osamu what they learned that day, he says that they didn’t learn much of anything other than the fact that meeting your soulmate in class is a great way to distract your teacher from a lesson. His mother asks him who he’s talking about, and then tells him to congratulate his classmates and that one day soon, he’ll be meeting his own soulmate. 

Osamu, on the other hand, tells him that he’s so annoying that the universe hadn’t been able to find anyone who was willing to put up with him for the rest of his life. (This comment is also the catalyst for the infamous Miya Household Food Fight of 2005, an incident which lives on in a series of photos from a disposable camera which neither of Atsumu’s parents will admit to taking.)

-

When Atsumu is thirteen years old a small, lonely part of him which he would rather not acknowledge begins to wonder if his brother was right. He’s not very upset about it, usually - he isn’t the type to spend his time daydreaming about some mysterious person who may or may not be out there to fall in love with, and besides, he’s been told enough times that he can live a “full and rewarding life” without a soulmate to live it with him. None of that gets rid of the bitter twinge he’s beginning to feel every time he’s forced to watch someone else’s world burst into color through ironic shades of gray.

By this point, Atsumu is nearly certain that if his soulmate is somewhere, they aren’t at Yako Junior High. That doesn’t stop him from getting confessions, though. Every so often one of his classmates will nervously walk up to him only to stare into his eyes for a few, hopeful seconds before apologizing profusely and disappearing. Many of these apologies come in the form of handwritten notes shoved hastily into his hands, which is how he learns that most of these classmates were hoping for his brother to be their soulmate and not him. After the fifth of these confessions Atsumu decides to forget about the whole soulmate thing, focus on volleyball, and dye his hair a color that the box tells him is “Honey Blonde” but he just hopes will be “Lighter Than Osamu’s Hair Gray”. 

(It’s neither).

-

When Miya Atsumu is fifteen years old, his plan to forget about soulmates completely falls apart. He is playing in his first official high school practice match against Itachiyama Academy when he glances across the net at a slightly taller boy with dark curly hair. Their eyes meet, just for an instant, and Atsumu may not have understood the big deal about soulmates earlier, but he certainly understands now.

He can see everything around him in vivid color - it’s dizzying and beautiful and entirely as overwhelming as everyone says it is, like looking at the world with a new set of eyes. He’s distantly aware of the fact that the game is still going on around him, but he isn’t able to find the will to do anything but stare until he hears the ball hit the ground behind him and the sound of a whistle being blown. 

Atsumu spends the rest of the game on the bench, and even though he knows he should be watching the team, he finds himself unable to tear his eyes away from the curly haired boy who caused this predicament in the first place. He observes a few things about him during this game - first, he’s good at volleyball. Scarily good, thanks in part to wrists which Atsumu is almost certain aren’t supposed to bend the way that they do. Secondly, he is unfortunately good looking. That fact wouldn’t be unfortunate if it wasn’t for fact number three, which is that he seems entirely unaffected by the glance he shared with Atsumu earlier. So, not only is Atsumu’s soulmate devastatingly attractive and good at volleyball, Atsumu isn’t his soulmate. Just his luck. 

Atsumu doesn’t know what to do, then. He knows that it’s possible for someone to have an unrequited soulmate - there’s a shelf at the local library filled with self help books and autobiographies with titles like “So You Aren’t Your Soulmate’s Soulmate: What Next?” and “Colorless: How My Experience With an Unrequited Soulmate Helped Me Build a Business Empire”. He had just never considered the fact that it could happen to him. 

When the game ends, Atsumu gets up from the bench and makes his way to the net to shake hands, where he finds himself face to face with his almost-definite-soulmate. If this was a movie, he would run under the net and into Atsumu’s arms, where they would kiss passionately as the credits rolled by. Instead he inclines his head, mutters “good game”, and then moves down the line before Atsumu has the chance to open his mouth. This incident is enough to convince Atsumu that the sinking feeling in his stomach was right - although this boy is his soulmate, it isn’t mutual.

He’s left to wallow in his own self-pity for a grand total of three days before Osamu stalks through the door of their shared bedroom with a slightly misshapen onigiri and a sympathetic look that makes Atsumu feel worse than he did earlier. 

“Get yer shit together.” He says. Atsumu might have laughed, if he was in any mood for humor. 

There’s a brief pause before Osamu speaks again, more sincerely than the last time. 

“I know this hurts, but the team needs you so ya better get up and come to practice tomorrow morning. You’re gonna be fine, Sumu.” 

“Leave me alone, shithead. I’ll come to practice when I wanna.” Atsumu mutters, before rolling over in bed so that he’s facing away from the doorway that Osamu is standing in. 

Osamu sighs, but he leaves the onigiri on Atsumu’s bedside table before he leaves. The next morning, Atsumu is at practice and the plate on his bedside table is empty.

-

When he is sixteen years old, Miya Atsumu is invited to the National Youth Intensive Training Camp and forces himself not to hope that his unrequited soulmate, who he now knows is named Sakusa Kiyoomi thanks to an almost embarrassing amount of research, will be there too.

Unfortunately (it _is_ unfortunate, Atsumu tells himself), Sakusa is there. He’s gotten taller since the last time Atsumu saw him, but he’s still just as attractive as he remembers. Atsumu can’t convince himself not to talk to him, then, as much as he wishes he could just look the other way and pretend not to care about the fact that Sakusa turned his world upside down on its axis and somehow remained unaffected. 

“Hey, Sakusa, right? How are ya?” He asks, realizing too late that Sakusa has never told him his name before. 

“I’m _trying_ to listen to the coach’s speech.” Sakusa responds, without so much as a glance in Atsumu’s direction. 

Before Atsumu has the chance to say anything else, the coach asks both of them if they have anything they would like to share with the group. Atsumu grins, apologizes, and forces himself to look at the coach and ignore the fact that the tips of Sakusa’s ears have turned slightly pink. 

With the exception of the sheer number of times that Atsumu has to remind himself to focus on volleyball and not on Sakusa, the rest of the training camp passes relatively without incident. He gets to set for Sakusa, and manages to stand on the opposite side of the court from him without thinking about what it would feel like if he was able to run his hands through those stupidly pretty curls. 

He learns that, in addition to his discomfort with germs (mysophobia, he discovers after looking up several variations of “why doesn’t my ~~soulmate~~ teammate want to use a bathtub with other people’s germs in it”), Sakusa hates cockroaches with a fervor not unlike Osamu’s passion for onigiri. He learns that Sakusa seems to have a wardrobe consisting entirely of strangely colored jackets with matching track pants and t-shirts with equally offensive colors. This wardrobe is further proof that he isn’t Sakusa’s soulmate, because Atsumu is positive that if Sakusa knew what the colors of his outfits looked like, he wouldn’t choose them. 

He learns that he _likes_ Sakusa, likes his deadpan comments and the moles over his right eye and the way that those same eyes seem to fill with happiness and pride every time he scores a point. 

He realizes that he would probably like Sakusa even if he wasn’t his soulmate, and tries to convince himself that he isn’t upset when Sakusa says goodbye to him on the last day of training camp without even getting his phone number.

-

When Atsumu is 18 years old he graduates from high school, signs with the MSBY Black Jackals as a reserve setter, and resolves that he is going to move on from Sakusa. He pulls out a crumpled up flyer from a drawer in his desk advertising some kind of soulmate support group, which he attends despite the fact that he thinks it will be more upsetting than it is helpful.

He’s partially correct - the support group is held in a dingy community center basement that looks like it hasn’t been deeply cleaned since it was first built, and every time Atsumu walks in he can’t help but think about how much Sakusa would hate it. 

Basement conditions aside, though, there’s something almost cathartic about being able to talk about his situation with someone who understands. He meets a few people who are in the same predicament that he is - like the man who met his soulmate when he was 28 years old at a business meeting, only to find out that she had already met her soulmate years ago in elementary school. He tells this story at the first meeting Atsumu attends, but finishes it with the fact that he is now married to a woman who’s soulmate had died soon after she first met him. Things aren’t perfect between them, he says, but they love each other and are expecting their first child any day now. 

Three sessions in, Atsumu meets a girl about his own age who tells the group that her best friend of several years just confessed that she is her soulmate. It isn’t mutual, though - she still hasn’t seen the colors yet, no matter how hard she tries. 

She cries as she tells the story, and seeing how guilty she feels about not being able to return her best friend’s feelings is enough to convince Atsumu that he can never tell Sakusa the truth about what happened when they first met. He cares about him too much for that - Sakusa deserves the chance to meet his soulmate, and to have a relationship where he isn’t burdened with Atsumu’s less than stellar luck. 

Moving on from Sakusa turns out to be much harder than Atsumu had anticipated - every time he goes on a date or brings someone home from a bar he can’t stop himself from thinking about what it would be like if they were a few inches taller, or had a few more moles or curlier hair. He decides to focus on volleyball instead, and spends so much time practicing that he becomes the first string setter after a little over a year with the team. He doesn’t think much about Sakusa, except for nearly every night when he tries to fall asleep and finds himself wondering where Sakusa is now, if he’s still playing volleyball, if he’s met his soulmate - if he’s happy.

-

When Atsumu is 23 years old, he walks into the Black Jackals practice gym to meet the new rookies and sees an entirely familiar head of black curls. He tells himself that this isn’t a big deal - he’s played against Sakusa plenty of times since that training camp in second year, and only occasionally wakes up from dreams with memories of face masks, a familiar set of moles, and a longing he can never quite shake. He can handle being teammates with Sakusa. He just has to make sure that Sakusa never finds out that he stopped Atsumu from seeing the world in shades of gray all the way back when they were fifteen years old.

For a while, it works. Him and Sakusa fall into a comfortable rhythm - Atsumu gives Sakusa a series of nicknames which he claims to be annoyed by but never seems sincerely upset about. He tries all of his best jokes on Sakusa, who never laughs at them but always responds with a dry, sarcastic wit that inexplicably makes Atsumu’s pulse race. He sets to Sakusa, who somehow always knows exactly what play Atsumu wants to run even if he doesn’t use hand signals or announce it first. They compete over who can get the most service aces in practice games and bicker almost constantly, and sometimes when they’re walking home together after a particularly difficult practice Atsumu thinks he notices Sakusa looking at him with something close to longing. 

(It’s terribly lonely, knowing that you will never be for your soulmate what they are for you. There are days when Atsumu hates the fact that he has to see Sakusa every day and pretend like everything is normal, hates that he will always be kept at arm's length by the one person he wants more than anything else. It isn’t Sakusa’s fault any more than it is his own, Atsumu knows this. Sometimes two people are just meant to pass one another by, to be nothing more than teammates and maybe, one day, friends. Knowing that doesn’t mean anything on the days when Atsumu wakes up aching for a life that he will never have, but him and Sakusa are teammates, and that is enough. It has to be.)

There are times when it’s difficult for Atsumu to keep his feelings to himself. He can feel the confessions on the tip of his tongue, sometimes - _you’re my soulmate you’re beautiful I love you I’m sorry_ \- but he always manages to swallow them down and replace them with something that won’t ruin the closest thing to a relationship with Sakusa that he will ever be able to have. It isn’t until after the team’s first official game with Sakusa that things change. 

It’s a close game, but they win after five grueling sets and more close calls than Atsumu would like to admit, which is enough for Bokuto to announce that everyone should come back to his apartment to celebrate. Sakusa, predictably, attempts to decline the invitation in favor of returning home to sanitize every surface in his apartment or whatever it is that he does in his spare time. Bokuto, predictably, insists that Sakusa join them. 

“Come onnnn, it’s your first game with the team and you won’t even celebrate with us?” Bokuto whines, leaning against the lockers while making a disturbing attempt at puppy dog eyes that probably wouldn’t even convince Bokuto’s soulmate and fiance Akaashi. 

“I don’t like parties.” Sakusa replies, completely ignoring Bokuto in favor of the pair of sneakers he’s packing into his gym bag. 

Atsumu knows, by now, that he should leave well enough alone. He should let Sakusa go, drown his sorrows in whatever beer Bokuto will manage to scrounge up in his fridge, and then stumble home and try to think about anything but the almost smile Sakusa gave him after scoring the game winning point. Leaving well enough alone has never been one of Atsumu’s strengths, though, so instead he turns to Sakusa and says: 

“Please, Omi-kun? If ya come with us this time we’ll never bother you about it again. ‘Sides, if it’s just us I’m not sure it counts as a party.” 

Sakusa looks very skeptical of this statement. Not that Atsumu blames him - even if _he_ doesn’t try to convince Sakusa to come to another team gathering he’s certain that someone else will, and with Bokuto’s track record he would be shocked if the party didn’t end up with a much larger guest list than “just the team”. He turns around, ready to walk to Bokuto’s apartment and pretend this never happened, when he hears Sakusa sigh from behind him. 

“Thirty minutes, and if it’s terrible then after that I’m leaving.”

-

Exactly thirty-five minutes, a shot of vodka, and one and a half beers after the start of the not-party, it occurs to Atsumu that he has no idea where Sakusa is. They had walked into Bokuto and Akaashi’s apartment together, and Atsumu had tried very hard not to read into the way that Sakusa moved a little bit closer to him as the crowd grew from just the team to what seemed to be every acquaintance of Bokuto’s in the prefecture and then some. He stayed close to Sakusa at first, but somewhere along the way he got a little too invested in Meian’s retelling of the last movie he saw and when he glanced over to where Sakusa had been standing he was nowhere to be found.

Atsumu tries to ignore the disappointment that washes over him when he realizes that Sakusa kept his word and left, but then a flash of bright green catches his eye through the window. Sakusa is standing on the balcony, and before Atsumu can think about what he’s doing he finds himself shoving his way through the crowd and stepping outside. 

“Omi-Omi! I was wonderin’ where ya wandered off to! Thought maybe ya decided to leave after all.” 

“I considered it.” 

For the first time that night, Atsumu begins to regret his choice to encourage Sakusa to come along. Standing outside, with only the faint hum of conversation in the background, Atsumu isn’t sure if he trusts himself not to do something stupid like confess to Sakusa then and there. He needs to say something, though, because focusing on the way Sakusa’s hair was falling into his face or the slight flush to his cheeks was guaranteed to do nothing but make this worse. 

“How’d ya like your first game with the team?”

“It was…” Sakusa paused, and then turned to face Atsumu. “Fun.” 

Sakusa’s mouth is covered by his mask, but Atsumu can hear the hint of a smile in his voice and it nearly undoes him. He’s realizing for the first time in a while what he’s known since that first practice match back in high school - he wants Sakusa, and it hurts. He wants to make Sakusa smile, to feel Sakusa’s lips against his own. He wants to know everything about him - and he can’t. Sakusa is the one person who he can never have, because regardless of the fact that Sakusa is supposed to be his soulmate, there is someone else out there for him and Atsumu is just the victim of some cruel, cosmic joke. 

“Miya? Are you alright?” Atsumu isn’t sure how long he’s been standing there, distracted by his own thoughts, but it must have been a while because Sakusa almost sounds worried about him and he never sounds worried about anyone. 

“Jus’ fine, Omi-kun! Don’t call me that, though. Feels like yer talkin’ to my brother instead of me.” 

“Atsumu.”

Atsumu’s mouth moves faster than his brain, after that. He isn't sure why, but somehow between the alcohol and the warm feeling that had taken root in his chest the minute Sakusa said his name, the only words he can find are - 

“That jacket is a really weird color.” 

He can’t figure out what to do after that, besides changing his name and leaving the country, because Atsumu is certain he’s just shattered the world record for “Most Awkward Conversation With an Unrequited Soulmate”. Talking about colors with someone who isn’t your soulmate is considered a faux pas at worst, but in this situation Atsumu knows he’s just revealed much more than he ever should have. Before he has the chance to say anything else, though, Sakusa has turned to face him and is studying him with an intensity usually reserved for the team’s most difficult opponents. 

“How do you know what color it is?” To anyone else, Sakusa would have seemed as uninterested as he usually did. Atsumu isn’t just anyone else, though, which is how he notices the unusual edge to Sakusa’s voice. Atsumu knows that he had crossed a line and said too much, but there’s something about the way that Sakusa is reacting that he can’t quite understand because if Sakusa is asking how _he_ knew what color it was then - 

Oh. Sakusa knows what color it is. He has a soulmate, and it isn’t Atsumu. He had always known it would happen, eventually, but he was never prepared for eventually to be now and suddenly his heart feels like it’s dropping out of his chest. 

“I…’s not important.” Atsumu mutters, hoping that Sakusa might decide against all logic to agree with Atsumu, drop the subject, and pretend that the whole conversation never happened.

“Yes, it is. Tell me how you know.” 

In all the years they’ve known each other, Atsumu has never heard Sakusa like this. He sounds almost desperate and Atsumu can’t stand it. He had never wanted to hurt Sakusa, but it’s much too late for that now so he takes a deep breath and decides to just be honest. 

“It’s you. The first time we played each other, in high school, I looked across the net and there ya were. And then ya looked away and didn’ even look at me after the game, so. I wasn’t even gonna say anything, honestly. Didn’t wanna hurt ya.” He can’t meet Sakusa’s eyes as he explains, so instead he looks down at his shoes and hopes that Sakusa knows what he’s implying, that he won’t ask him to say anything else.

“I can’t believe you.” 

Atsumu had expected dismissal, or confusion, or outright disgust, but somehow it had never occurred to him that Sakusa would be angry with him. He is, though, and if Atsumu had any hope that things could still be normal between him and Sakusa after this he certainly doesn’t anymore. 

“‘M sorry, Sakusa. I shouldn' have even said anything. I’ll go.” He turns to leave, hoping that he’ll be able to slip out of the party without being noticed, but stops when he feels Sakusa’s hand grab his sleeve. 

“Are you positive it was me.”

“Of course I’m fucking _positive_. Do ya really think I would’ve started all this if I wasn’t sure?.” Atsumu is almost shouting now, and no matter how hard he tries he can’t stop the way his voice breaks on the last word. 

“I thought you had someone else.” Sakusa says, and Atsumu doesn’t know what to think because the only reason he can think of for Sakusa to say something like that is if Atsumu was wrong for thinking that he wasn’t Sakusa’s soulmate. 

“What’re you talking about?” Atsumu asks, forcing himself not to hope even though he knows he’s already far past that point. 

“It happened for me then too. I didn’t know what to do, but then after the game you didn’t say anything to me so I thought I was imagining your reaction. Even if you were my soulmate, I didn’t think I was yours.” Sakusa’s voice softens at that last part, and Atsumu doesn’t mean to move but he feels himself step closer to him all the same.

“Yer serious, right? This isn’t some kinda joke?” Atsumu knows the answer as he asks, because he doesn’t think he’s ever heard Sakusa tell a joke and even if he did he certainly wouldn’t joke about something like this. He needs to hear it from Sakusa before he can fully believe it, though, so he asks. 

“You are unbelievably dense sometimes.” Sakusa says, but there’s a fond edge to the insult that catches Atsumu off guard. 

“Me? ‘S not like you ever went outta yer way to say anything to me! The fuck was I supposed to think?” 

“The only reason I didn’t say anything is because you never said anything either.” 

“I guess we both coulda done things differently.” It’s Atsumu’s attempt at stopping the conversation before it escalates any further, because as much as he can enjoy arguing with Sakusa there are much better things that they could be talking about right now. 

“Can I - ”

Atsumu isn’t sure what he’s going to ask, but right now he thinks he would do anything Sakusa told him to do, so he just grins and says “Anything you want, Omi-kun.” 

Sakusa takes a step closer and closes his eyes, and then Atsumu feels a soft press against his lips and - oh. He’s kissing Sakusa Kiyoomi. His soulmate. It’s nothing like the tv shows Atsumu used to watch - there’s the distant thumping of Bokuto’s playlist from inside the apartment instead of dramatic piano music, Sakusa is still wearing a mask, Atsumu’s eyes are wide open and neither of them have figured out what to do with their hands, but it feels so _right_ that he regrets every complaint he’s ever lodged against the concept of soulmates. 

It only lasts a second before Sakusa pulls away, looking at Atsumu as if he’s worried that he just committed a horrible misstep. He’s done the exact opposite of that, though, and Atsumu can’t help himself from smiling. 

“Shit, Kiyoomi. Can we do that more often?” 

Sakusa - _Kiyoomi_ \- nods, and he looks for a moment like he’s considering something before he reaches up and unhooks his mask from one ear. Atsumu finds himself briefly distracted by Kiyoomi’s fingers, but when he puts the mask in his pocket and steps closer to Atsumu he realizes where this is going. 

“Ya sure, Omi?” He glances up slightly, searching Kiyoomi’s eyes for any sign of hesitation, but he doesn’t find anything but fond annoyance. 

“If you don’t shut up I might not be.” 

Atsumu laughs and then pulls his arm around Kiyoomi’s waist, careful not to spill any of the beer he hasn’t had a chance to put down, until they’re close enough for him to tilt his head up and press their lips together. Kiyoomi’s hands are warm where they rest on Atsumu’s hips, and when he reaches his free hand up to rest in Kiyoomi’s curls they’re just as soft as he always imagined they would be. 

He isn’t sure how long they stay like that, but suddenly Atsumu feels Kiyoomi pull away from him. He’s briefly worried that he did something wrong - maybe he’s such a bad kisser that Kiyoomi has decided he doesn’t have feelings for Atsumu after all - but then he realizes that Kiyoomi is not looking at him but instead is glaring at the window to the apartment as if it had somehow gravely offended him. 

Atsumu follows his gaze, and when he looks through the window he sees that the entire rest of the team had gathered to watch them at some point without their notice. They at least have the sense to turn away when they realize they’ve been discovered, but Atsumu is almost positive he sees Bokuto slip a few bills into Hinata’s hand. 

“Well, I guess that takes care of the whole tellin’ the team thing?” Atsumu asks. Kiyoomi reaches for Atsumu’s hand and makes a strange snorting sound, which Atsumu realizes a second later must be his laugh. He thinks he wouldn’t mind if it was the only sound he heard for the rest of his life. 

“Ya know, I think I get it now.” 

“Get what?” Kiyoomi asks, turning back to face Atsumu with a fond look that Atsumu already thinks is going to be the death of him, someday. 

“When we were fifteen an’ I first saw ya, I thought I knew wha’ the big deal was with all those soulmate movies and everythin’. But then I thought I wasn’t yer soulmate, so I gave up on the whole thing. It wasn’ really about that though. It was about -” He pauses, and then glances down at his hand where it’s intertwined with Kiyoomi’s. 

Kiyoomi looks down too, and then the corner of his mouth pulls into a soft smile.

“This.”

“Yeah. Yeah, exactly.” 

When Atsumu is 23 years old, on the balcony of Bokuto and Akaashi’s apartment holding a cheap beer in one hand and Kiyoomi’s hand in the other, he truly understands what a soulmate is for the first time. It is dizzying and beautiful and entirely as overwhelming as everyone says it is - like looking at the world with a new set of eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: one of the jokes in this is inspired by the suite life of zack and cody. if you find it i owe you my endless love and admiration. thank you so so much for reading i hope you enjoyed!  
> p.s. feel free to come yell at me about sakuatsu on [twitter](https://twitter.com/kotoumii_)!


End file.
